Politics

UCLA Clinic persuades federal Administrative Law Judge to vacate approval of new coal mining permit on Indian land in Arizona

I have some exciting news I can’t resist sharing: UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic won a major administrative case last month, which is now final now that the time for appeal has run. All twelve of our clinic students spent a significant chunk of this fall working on it, along with me and …

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Is EPA backtracking on Clean Air Act greenhouse gas regulation?

UPDATE: Cara discusses in this post some further developments that make the EPA’s plans more concrete, and concludes that the EPA is backtracking significantly from its proposed rule by delaying the timetable and by regulating fewer facilities. **** Last fall, our Environmental Protection Agency appeared to be on the verge of moving very quickly to …

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The trouble with Chinatown

Ann proposes Chinatown as the greatest environmental movie of all time.  Now, Chinatown is my favorite movie: the poster above is currently hanging on my office wall.  it is a great movie.  But Chinatown can’t be a great environmental movie for one simple reason: It gets the environment wrong. The conceit of Chinatown is that a diabolical …

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Pesticides, Science and Politics

Those three can make for a toxic environment, literally and figuratively.  Take the case of methyl iodide, a material so obviously toxic that scientists use it to induce cancer in laboratory experiments.  Arysta LifeScience Corporation has obtained a federal pesticide registration from EPA for use as a fumigant, despite a letter from 50 scientists, including five …

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Simple Answers to Simple Questions

After noting some positive poll results regarding climate change, Cara asks: So, can we get cracking on a clean energy and jobs bill in the Senate? No. This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

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New environmental dating site matches fossil fuel industry lobbyists, elected officials

I’ve never been involved in either of two trends that have exploded in recent years: internet dating, and lobbying of federal officials by fossil fuel-based energy-producing companies.  But I just learned about a new website that links the two.  The site, Polluter Harmony, says it “is the #1 matchmaking site for polluters, industry lobbyists, & politicians.” Although …

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The Best Defense….

Ann cautions about downplaying the findings that the IPCC report erred in predicting the melting of Himalayan glaciers by 2035, and in the resistance of researchers to respond to FOIA requests from a climate skeptic site. She’s right.  We shouldn’t downplay the reports: instead, we should ridicule them.  So the glaciers won’t actually melt by …

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Who’ll Stop the Rain?

Maybe the City of Los Angeles.  I complained a couple of weeks ago that during the (rare) times when the Southland gets a downpour, all the water get sent out to sea ASAP, even though cistern technology exists that could conserve water, reduce pollution, and reduce the costs of purchasing it from elsewhere. Well, as …

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The Obama Administration’s Push for High-Speed Rail

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJhM3BpBPp8] Fresh from a State of the Union Address that focused heavily on domestic economic issues, President Obama and Vice President Biden journeyed to Tampa, Florida last week to announce federal support–and $8 billion in government funding–for high speed rail projects across the country. That’s a most welcome development. American train buffs who’ve traveled in …

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Priming the Political Pump for Climate Legislation

Dan, Rick, and Jonathan have all discussed the implications of the political events of the last week for climate change policy.  Certainly, it seems clear that both from a vote-counting perspective and from a political momentum perspective, the special election last week made passage of a climate change bill through the Senate generally harder.  And …

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